quote:Originally posted by Canaveral:What was the possibility of LC-34 being used for the Skylab Saturn 1B launches?

LC-34 was to have been used to launch Apollo missions for the Apollo Applications Program. However, the costs of maintaining the gantry and other associated equipment between the Apollo 7 launch and the time of the first AAP missions eventually proved to be very expensive. Building the so-called milkstool on the Saturn V launcher for the Saturn 1B/Skylab flights proved cheaper, thus LC-34 was deactivated and mostly dismantled except for the hardware noted in the previous posting. Basically, the decision to scrap LC-34 boiled down to money.

svg4349New Member

Posts: 4From: Registered: Jul 2009

posted 01-30-2010 09:23 PM
This may be a real shot in the dark, but I was wondering if anyone has any photos, documents or information pertaining to the decommissioning / scrapping of Launch Complex 34. I recall LC-34 and 37 were considered for reactivation for the Apollo Applications Program, but 34 was eventually scrapped. Can anyone provide information on the matter.

Does/div an LC-34 "boneyard" exist?

Editor's note: Threads merged

mikejMember

Posts: 419From: Germantown, WI USARegistered: Jan 2004

posted 01-30-2010 10:08 PM
LC-34 and LC-37 Deactivation discusses some of the considerations when LC-34 and LC-37 were initially deactivated after Apollo 7.

It seems to me that I saw a different Bellcomm paper on the NTRS which compared the costs and other factors of refurbishing LC-34 and/or LC-37 vs. modifying LC-39, but I can't seem to find the right search terms to turn it up right now.

I guess for the time being I will assume there are no readily available photos of these proceedings, but good info none the less.

I did not realize that the gantries and supporting above ground equipment were removed with such haste after the Apollo 7 launch brought an end to the complex's use. I'd imagine their proximity to the ocean (several hundred yards) expedited the need to remove the towers before the corroded too a critical degree.

If anyone has some photos please share. Thanks.

ProponentMember

Posts: 59From: LondonRegistered: Oct 2008

posted 02-01-2010 10:18 PM

quote:Originally posted by mikej:It seems to me that I saw a different Bellcomm paper on the NTRS which compared the costs and other factors of refurbishing LC-34 and/or LC-37 vs. modifying LC-39, but I can't seem to find the right search terms to turn it up right now.

The other accidents mentioned were a fall from an Atlas launchpad gantry and a fall from a ladder at a Snark launch site.

ilbassoMember

Posts: 1501From: Greensboro, NC USARegistered: Feb 2006

posted 02-05-2011 07:51 PM
Is the blockhouse at Pad 34 completely gutted now? I've seen this photo from the SA-6 launch, but there are precious few photos from other launches that show more than one or two people.

Post-Apollo 7, I have only seen one photo of a single control station with two control panels in the blockhouse. (If this is your photo, please forgive me for posting it without attribution - I've lost the record of where I got it from.)

It's obviously well past the time of Apollo 7, as the glue in the indicator lights has degraded significantly.

I'm curious as to what happened to the equipment that was in the blockhouse. I doubt that any of it made its way over to the Pad 39 LCC.

Does anyone have any tour or other photos from within the blockhouse?

Rusty BMember

Posts: 239From: Sacramento, CARegistered: Oct 2004

posted 02-05-2011 09:14 PM
Here is a video (Steps to Saturn [1961]) about the launch of SA-1 in October 1961. In the last few minutes of the video are scenes from the inside of the LC-34 blockhouse during the countdown of SA-1.